1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to stocks for firearms. More particularly, it relates to the butt stock of firearms used for tactical or combat situations.
2. Prior Art.
Most modern firearms have a stock which is designed for shooting the firearm in a classical shooting position. In the classical shooting position, the butt stock is placed in the shoulder pocket of the shooter. The shooter's shoulders and feet are at approximately a 30° angle to the direction of the firearm and the shooter's head is lowered and forward such that his cheek is firmly on the top of the butt stock and the shooter's dominant eye is aligned with the firearm's sights.
Use of the classical shooting position while in a tactical or close quarter battle (CQB) situation exposes the shooter to additional risk. In a tactical situation, a shooter typically wears body armor which protects the front and back of the torso of the shooter. However, it does not protect the arms of the shooter and, as such, if the shooter is confronting a threat in the classical shooting position the firearm will typically be pointed towards the threat, the shooter will be standing at a 30° angle to the direction of the firearm, and as such a 60° angle to the threat. This exposes the opening in the body armor where the non-dominant arm goes through the body armor. Upper torso wounds from small arms fire in combat can enter through this opening.
Due to this draw back in the classical shooting position, the tactical shooting position is preferred in a CQB situation. In the tactical shooting position, the shooter stands so that his shoulders and feet are perpendicular to the direction of the firearm. The bottom corner of the butt stock is placed against the shooter's dominant side, upper chest at the mid-clavicular line, while the shooter's head is upright and looking forward. The firearm is carried in the ready position until a threat is confronted. In the ready position, the firearm is pointed downward at a 45° angle towards the ground. Once a threat is confronted, the firearm is raised and pointed toward the threat, and the shooter's shoulders and feet are maintained at a perpendicular orientation to the direction of the firearm. With the firearm in the tactical shooting position, the top of the butt stock is against the shooter's dominant side cheek and the shooter's dominant eye is in line with the sights. The tactical shooting position provides the shooter with an optimal amount of protection from the body armor. It also provides the shooter with a better vision for additional threats coming from the non-dominant side of the shooter.
The problem with using the tactical shooting position with the firearm stocks on the market today is that the only point of contact between the firearm and the shooter's torso is the lower corner of the butt stock. This decreases the stability of the firearm and shooter. Another drawback is that this small pointed area of the firearm is placed directly upon the clavicle of the shooter; therefore, any recoil from the firearm is forced into a very small area on the shooter. This increases the discomfort and stiffness of the shooter resulting from this recoil.
Many sporting firearms such as shotguns have a stock where the butt stock is offset at an angle from the barrel. This helps lower the butt plate of the stock so that when shooting in a classical shooting position the butt plate reaches down to the shoulder pocket of the shooter while the sights remain in front of the shooter's dominant eye. Use of an offset angle is helpful when shooting in the classical or tactical shooting position. However, if the shooter must move to a prone shooting position, the use of a stock with a large offset angle causes the shooter to have to raise their head to a higher level in order to place their dominant eye in line with the sights of the firearm. In a CQG situation, this exposes the shooter to additional risk due to the fact that his head is raised.
There are numerous patents for firearm stocks with an adjustable butt stock which allows the shooter to adjust the offset angle. These patents include U.S. Pat. No. 146,651 entitled “Stocks for Fire-Arms” issued to A. R. Byrkit on Jan. 20, 1874; U.S. Pat. No. 843,227 entitled “Jointed Gun Stock” issued to Homer W. Munson on Feb. 5, 1907; U.S. Pat. No. 855,229 entitled “Gun Stock” issued to Patrick H. Clarisey on May 28, 1907; U.S. Pat. No. 1,088,362 entitled “Adjustable Butt Plate for Gun Stocks” issued to John W. Perkins on Feb. 24, 1914; U.S. Pat. No. 1,582,395 entitled “Butt Cap for Guns, Especially for Short Rifles” issued to Rudolf Haemmerli on Apr. 27, 1926; U.S. Pat. No. 1,651,299 entitled “Adjustable Gun Stock” issued to Roy V. Stansel on Nov. 29, 1927; U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,676 entitled “Hand Guard for Firearms,” issued to Paul Kennedy on Apr. 30, 1991; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,098 entitled “Recoil Absorber and Redirector Mechanism for Gun Stock” issued to Jay. P. Griggs on Nov. 9, 1999. However, these devices require that the shooter adjust the stock to one setting for a classical or tactical shooting position. They must then readjust the stock again for a prone shooting position. In a combat situation, the shooter must rapidly move from one firing position to another. This may entail changing from a tactical shooting position to prone shooting position or vice versa. As such, the shooter does not have time when changing firing positions to adjust or readjust a stock in order to obtain optimum performance from the firearm.
U.S. Pat. No. 694,904 (the '904 patent) entitled “Sighting Device for Firearms” issued to William Youlten on Mar. 4, 1902, discloses an adaptor which can be attached to the butt stock of a rifle. This adaptor allows the shooter to operate the firearm from a trench without exposing his head above ground level. The device disclosed in the '904 patent places the firearm above the shooter's head while in use. This differs greatly from the present invention which allows the shooter to shoot from either a classical position, a tactical shooting position or a prone position. The device disclosed in the '904 patent is only useful for firing from a trench and cannot be used for shooting from a classical, tactical or prone shooting position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,676 to Kennedy claims a hand guard or forestock for a firearm. FIG. 1 of Kennedy discloses an AR-15 or M-16. The butt stock of this firearm has a butt plate which appears to have a first and a second surface. The angle between the first and the second surface of the butt plate in Kennedy is nearly straight. The angle between these two surfaces in Kennedy is approximately 170 degrees. The butt plate of the present application has an angle between these two surfaces of less than 155 degrees.
When shooting in the tactical position, the second surface of the butt plate is placed upon the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line of the user. This region of the human body is typically at a 28 degree to 44 degree angle to the vertical. In order for the butt stock to comfortably fit to the user while shooting in a tactical position, the angle of the second surface must be approximately complimentary to the angle of the user's upper chest at the mid-clavicular line, i.e., the angle between the first and second surfaces of the butt plate plus the angle of the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line of the user must add up to approximately 180 degrees. This is necessary so that the second surface of the butt plate can fit comfortably against the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line of the user while the barrel of the firearm is at approximately a 90 degree direction to the first section and a 90 degree angle to the vertical.
When applying the device shown in Kennedy, it suffers from the same shortcomings as that of the other prior art. If the firearm in Kennedy is used in the same manner as the present invention to shoot from a tactical shooting position, the second surface of the butt plate would be resting on the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line of the user. As previously mentioned, this upper chest at the mid-clavicular line is typically from 28 degrees to 44 degrees off of the vertical. With the second surface of the Kennedy device flatly against the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line of the user, the barrel of the firearm would be 18 degrees to 34 degrees above the horizontal. When considering that threats are typically engaged within a 5 to 10 meter range when in a tactical situation such as a SWAT team clearing a house, this would lead to the user shooting well over the head of the threat.
The other option for using the firearm disclosed in Kennedy to shoot from a tactical position would be to have the barrel of the gun approximately on the horizontal. However, this would lead to the same problem as the other prior art. The second surface of the butt plate is not complimentary to the typical range of angles of the mid-clavicle region of a user of approximately 28 to 44 degrees. This in turn causes the user to have to place the bottom corner of the butt stock against the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line, thus causing the recoil from the firearm to go into a very small area of the upper chest at the mid-clavicular line of the user just under that corner of the butt stock. The net result would be little or no improvement over the other prior art of having a single surface butt plate.
As can be seen by the geometric analysis above of using the Kennedy device while shooting from a tactical shooting position, the device does not provide any of the benefits of the present invention. As such, the present invention is not merely a discovery of the optimum or workable ranges and would therefore not be obvious to one skilled in the art.
This is further underscored by the fact that Kennedy does not have any discussion of the design of the butt stock or how it could be used in a manner which would provide the same benefits as the present invention. When Kennedy is reviewed in its entirety, it teaches away from the present invention by requiring the user shooting from a tactical position to either shoot over the head of the threat or shoot with the bottom corner digging into the user's upper chest at the mid-clavicular line.